MultiChoice Africa Accelerator Programme expands to 8 more African countries

Calvo Mawela, MultiChoice Group CEO | image supplied

Having started in South Africa in 2021, the MultiChoice Africa Accelerator is expanding to Ivory Coast, Senegal, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Zambia, Angola and Ethiopia.

The initiative equips emerging entrepreneurs to secure funding and scale up their businesses, and also provides opportunities to pitch to international investors.

The MultiChoice Africa Accelerator Programme, which kicked off during the Global Entrepreneurship Week, is aimed at established startups and small enterprises in specific technology sectors – healthtech, agritech, fintech, edutech, the circular economy and the creative industries.

The programme is an initiative of the MultiChoice Innovation Fund, in collaboration with Dubai-based business incubator Companies Creating Change (C3), which gives entrepreneurs access to the tools, skills and financial support to grow their businesses.

MultiChoice has also partnered with EOH, a tech services company that will bring its expertise to the table, especially in terms of tech advisory, development sprint and technical support.

The first phase of the MultiChoice Africa Accelerator Programme sees public and private-sector partners in each country nominating businesses or entrepreneurs for the programme.

From there, 29 of the startups embark on an intensive virtual training course. The initiative is aimed at established businesses that are already operating and looking to scale up by attracting further investment.

The virtual training course takes place over several weeks, teaching startup owners media skills, how best to market their businesses to investors, how to create attractive business plans, and to know what investors are looking for.

Later, the entrepreneurs will come together at a finals event, where 11 startups will be selected for the final pitch phase. They will attend a dedicated C3 boot camp to learn how to shape their story for international investors and to get “pitch ready” before their big presentations.

“We’re really excited to be expanding the MultiChoice Africa Accelerator Programme to more African countries,” said Calvo Mawela, MultiChoice Group CEO, announcing the launch. “It’s part of our long-term commitment to growing and multiplying Africa’s technology potential, which is critical to our future growth.”

“There is such incredible business talent across Africa,” said Mawela. “MultiChoice Africa Accelerator is an opportunity for investors and small enterprise to collaborate to multiply the impact of this talent and scale it across Africa.”